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Formative evaluation is a type of usability evaluation that helps to "form" the design for a product or service. Formative evaluations involve evaluating a product or service during development, often iteratively, with the goal of detecting and eliminating usability problems.

One important aspect of formative evaluation is that the audience for the observations and recommendations is the project team itself, used to immediately improve the design of the product or service and refine the development specifications. Results can be less formal than in summative evaluation, as suits the needs of designers, developers, project managers, and other project participants.